Being the mother of a teenage son and full-time contractor at a B.S. job, I have a lot on my plate. Between the stress generated at work and the stress generated at home, I am at my wit’s end – frequently. I need a break, but asking for a vacation at work is almost like asking for a raise; I get looked at like I’m asking to sacrifice their first born.
Like I mentioned in my last article about unhappy situations, I essentially have three choices. They are:
1. I can change the situation
2. I can accept the situation
3. I can walk away from the situation
I can’t walk away from it unless I want my family to starve and I most certainly shouldn’t accept the situation. So how do I change it?
As a modern day wage slave, I feel my job is completely useless and meaningless. I actually officially came to this conclusion recently as I was scanning some papers at work. Imagine at my funeral (hopefully many years from now) someone giving a eulogy stating that @cali-girl’s biggest contribution to society was scanning papers? How depressing. I don’t want to scan papers for the rest of my life. Sure, that’s only a very small part of my job, but that was the specific activity that gave me a jolt.
The rusty wheels in my head started to turn at that point and I started to realize how little I am going to have by the time I reach retirement age if I continue on the same path. Not only how little money I’ll have, but also how little of my sanity I will have. I’ll take the sanity any day.
In case you’re still asleep like I’ve been for so long, let’s do a little math together, shall we?
The average American person spends 40 to 45 years in the workforce and makes about $50,000 USD per year. I apologize if you’re not American, but these numbers could still be powerful for you, so bear with me. Some people spend much more than 45 years working, but let’s just use the low end number since 40 is nice and round. I realize as people get older, they usually (though not always) earn more money, but let’s use a consistent $50,000 per annum as our number.
40 X $50,000 = $2,000,000
All that stress and ass kissing 40 hours a week for 40 years and all we get is $2,000,000? Obviously we can’t save the majority of that $2 million. Most of it goes to housing, raising children, health care, taxes, education, car expenses, and household expenses. The average person (who btw probably doesn’t invest their extra money) is lucky if he or she is left with anything at all – including an intact marriage if there ever was one. If you’re married, what is that – $4,000,000?
What a scam. The world is changing, and we're on to you, Mr. Employer!
Why would anyone want to stay in a thankless, pointless job that long? What is there to show for it other than anger, stress, health issues, and probably a broken marriage?
Now back to my question. How do I change my situation? How do you change YOUR situation?
I don’t exactly know yet, but I’m very glad Steemit exists. I hope it can become a way of life for more people. Money making and cryptocurrency articles are not exactly my type of writing, but I have seen more hope here than I have elsewhere in a very long time. With that said, when you see excellence, don’t be afraid to upvote it. And don’t be afraid to share your own excellence with us here in the Steemit world. We are all in this together. Let's work smarter, not harder.
Now I’m off to upvote some posts…
One upvote for cali-girl's 'freedom-fund':)
Yay!!!! You are the greatest.
Hey @cali-girl, I feel you,
but mostly it is not the employers fault of the situation we are in. Most are humans like us and at the end of the day, they have to put something for their family on the table. I'm speaking about the average employer, not the big corporations who are killing the market and the competition.
We need to be smarter at this and find a way out of the vicious cycle of 9-5 or what ever the hours might be. This is what I'm least side working on.
Most of the jobs I did not like, mostly because of the direct manager. I changed 7 jobs in the past 8 years, mostly by head-hunters offering way better positions. If you are unhappy with your job, try a change. Set up a linkedin or a monster account, put every skil you have obtained and let them come to you. A friend of mine has the phylosophy to change the job every 2 years. By doing this he gained 150% salary increase in 10 years. This could work also till one point.
Your health should be the top priority. Else you can not take care of you or your kid.
Whatever happens in life, the most important thing is to reduce stress. A specialist has told that over 75% of all diseases and health problems are stress-related. Everything from headaches, sleeping problems, diarrhea, infarction, cancer etc.
Good health is the most important thing one has. Not only work and career...
Yes, absolutely true! I get a lot of migraines and tension headaches and there's no doubt it's due to stress.
I'mma paying it forward to!
You're smart cali-girl. You can do math and think logically. This changing world is your oyster, if you bring the change to it. You already identified that it was this that was the path. So, create good content. figure a way to make things better and then take your dream to the masses!!!
You can do it!
Thank you, I appreciate your confidence in me. :)
I sincerely hope that Steemit can help you change or walk away from your situation so that you don't have to accept it!
I do too and I sincerely appreciate all your support!
I understand your peril, as I was there a few ways ago, living in the best school district in San Diego for the kids while working a ton to afford it. I don't have a answer, but I know a government career path that offers some options without too much work. Let me know if you are interested, and above all good luck. I really feel for your scenario.
Are you on Discord?
Unfortunately I have no idea what discord is? I must've missed something when I started here ... 🤦♂️
It's the chat application used for the Minnow Support Project. https://steemit.com/minnowsupportproject/@discordiant/discord-and-community-guide-to-the-msp-minnow-support-project
Signed up on discord ... all the codes I have found around here seem to be expired. Anyway I could chat with you on discord to help me along? Jacoby Grunts #3292
Hey, sorry, just now saw your reply. I tried to add you as a friend, but it can't find you. Try adding me when you are there again:
cali-girl#6650
Hey, are you still on Discord? I've been wanting to chat with you about the job you spoke of in this thread. If you see this, message me there.
Just to cheer you up:) You didn't factor in the biggest tax of all: inflation! Then there are fees! Fees damn it! And more fees! And you better pay your taxes! That should take at leat 30% of that 2 mil....And don't forget the predatory lenders who are there to 'mortgage' as much of your income in advance as is entirely permissible by law....And they have lot's of law on their side!
Okay, you can smile now! Yikes!
Yikes is right! I avoided mentioning inflation and stupid fees so it wouldn't sound SO bad...:)
Excellent post.
This is precisely one of the talks I have with my brother constantly. The problem is not only the money you get and the sanity you lose but also the time you spend on these jobs. When you put things in perspective, how much time you get in the day to do meaningful things? This is one of the questions that bugs me the most nowadays...
Anyway, I totally agree with you!
Thank you for sharing with us!
I agree. Time is our most precious resource. Then there's the factor of declining physical health. By the time you get home from work, even if there is a little time to do something, chances are...you're too tired to bother with it.
Dear @cali-girl, recently I haven't answers on your questions. But one thing I notice lately, and that is, people become more aware of the situation, as you described in your post where you mention yearly wages. This gives me hope that world started to change, people refuse to be sheeps anymore, and I am happy for that.
It would be nice to be in a world with no sheeple.
Very well written...your article vocalizes most of the frustration experienced by average working class person...we are sold on the idea of being studious so we postpone the fun to going to college, then we are sold on the glamor of a running wallet so we postpone joyful days of college and when paycheck arrives we are expected to get into the humongous responsibility...expectations of buying ring/home/private schools, all geared to keeping us stuck with paycheck to paycheck lives...
Of the many routes we are on the look out for, Steemit is definitely the one that caters the creative aspect and hopefully, one day, financial aspect...upvoted...
Yes, I very much agree with you. We have to break free!! :)
Steemit and other ways, thanks to technology, are helping along! All the best to all of us!
I think you speak for a lot of us. At least we are seeing slavery for what it really is, right?
Yes, the first step is recognizing that there is a problem.
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decided to follow you, when you have time you can go through my wall please
@cali-girl smart workers ftw
:D
resteemed
This post has received a 2.94 % upvote from @booster thanks to: @cali-girl.